Using personal storytelling in speech therapy for people with communication disorders

What is it about?

Stories are fundamental to human experience - they help us connect with others, process life events, and maintain our sense of identity. For people with aphasia (communication difficulties after stroke), sharing and receiving stories becomes challenging due to language impairments, yet storytelling remains crucial for psychological well-being and social connection. This article introduces co-constructed storytelling as a therapeutic approach where clinicians collaborate with people with aphasia to create and share personal narratives. We describe three different methods: the My Story Project (individual life story creation), Aphasia! This Is Our World (virtual group storytelling), and Aphasia-Friendly Reading (collaborative reading with care partners). Rather than positioning clients as passive recipients of treatment, this approach recognizes them as storytellers and experts with valuable experiences to share. Through detailed case examples, we show how Steve shared his musical expertise, Sally found community during pandemic isolation, and Kay reclaimed her voice by telling golf stories with her husband. These interventions simultaneously address language goals while supporting identity reconstruction and meaningful participation in life. The article provides practical guidance for clinicians, including sample therapy goals, documentation examples, and strategies for implementing storytelling interventions in real-world clinical settings where reimbursement and productivity demands are considerations.

Why is it important?

This work addresses a critical gap between what we know works in aphasia rehabilitation and what actually happens in clinical practice. While person-centered, participation-focused intervention is considered best practice, most clinicians struggle to implement it practically. Our approach provides concrete frameworks that make person-centered care achievable in real-world clinical settings. By demonstrating how storytelling interventions can be documented as billable therapy services with measurable goals, we enable clinicians to move beyond traditional impairment-focused approaches toward meaningful, identity-supporting intervention. This shift is crucial because aphasia affects not just language but sense of self, relationships, and life participation. The three approaches we describe can be adapted across different settings and severity levels, making this person-centered approach accessible to more clinicians and clients.